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Alfalfa sprouts have just saved the day. No need to thank them, though—they’re just doing their usual job of keeping you and yours healthy by … helping streams meander.
Apparently meandering is now a scientific goal. Scientists believe that crooked streams actually help diversify and enrich wild habitats. (So for a stream, “get bent” is almost a blessing.) OK, so that’s all well and good, but no scientists were ever able to “experimentally create self-sustaining meanders in the lab.” Until now.
That’s right—alfalfa sprouted up to save the day. A recently published study by William Dietrich, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science, and grad student Christian Braudrick found that alfalfa sprouts can be used to reinforce the banks of a laboratory-made stream, producing the desired meandering.
Intriguingly, these lively veggies could be responsible for even more breakthroughs down the road. The researchers hope to use their findings to discover how meanders formed on the surface of the lifeless planet Mars.
Praise be to those brave little sprouts. They may end up helping us understand our universe.
Image source: Tim Patterson under Creative Commons
Alfalfa sprouts hold the line on meandering streams [UC Berkeley News]
Tags:alfalfa, lab, Mars, planetary science, sprouts, streams
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